Thursday, July 18, 2013

"Woman" by John Lennon

Pop Bits: At the time of Lennon's murder, "(Just Like) Starting Over" was in the Top 10 as was the album "Double Fantasy." Both rose quickly to #1 after his death and spent several weeks at the top. Apparently, Lennon had already picked "Woman" to be the follow-up single and it became his first posthumous release peaking at #2 for three weeks.

ReduxReview: I'll have to state that I don't think "Double Fantasy" is a great album. And with the events tied to it, the LP is a little hard to listen to sometimes. I've listened to it several times and the pairing of Ono's odd little tunes with some average-to-great Lennon songs just does not work for me (and yes I understand the concept - which makes his death even sadder). However, Lennon did have some solid songs and this is one of them. It was actually this song that got me to listen to the album. If pushed, I would admit that this seems a bit of a simple ditty from Lennon, but he does such a great job with it and it just works.

ReduxRating: 7/10

Trivia: When "Double Fantasy" was release, it initially received a good chunk of negative reviews including ones from Rolling Stone and The Village Voice. After his death, many publications chose to remove the bad reviews and the album went on to be a big hit and even win the Grammy for Album of the Year. And now the album has basically reach "classic" status and is typically included in many "best of" album lists. Had Lennon not been killed, chances are the legacy of the album might have been different. But with his death comes a certain attachment to the LP and perhaps even new meaning to some of the songs. Historical moments have affected music before and this is definitely one of those cases.